Eight children's hospitals across Ohio are finding that collaboration has improved overall care quality, and they are now spreading their findings to 25 other children’s hospitals nationwide this year.
After teaming up in 2009, the eight participating hospitals in the non-profit corporation, Ohio Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety (OCHSPS), saw surgical site infections drop 60 percent and adverse drug reactions fall 40 percent, according to Jessie Cannon, project director of OCHSPS.
Moreover, the collaborative efforts have saved more than 7,700 children from unnecessary harm and prevented $11.8 million in unnecessary costs since the pediatric partnership began.
“Back in 2009, we launched the partnership with eight hospitals and Cardinal Health in Columbus, Ohio. We were working on reducing medical errors at children’s hospitals and figuring out what was driving costs,” said Cannon. “We were particularly successful with dropping surgical site infections and adverse drug reactions. From there, we decided we wanted to go broader in scope to decrease these areas of harm in many more hospitals.”
Following such success, the state's children's hospitals are leading national efforts now to improve hospital care and patient safety by expanding to 34 hospitals nationwide this year and adding another 75 by the end of 2013, to create the OCHSPS National Children’s Network, said Cannon. The Cardinal Health Foundation has provided $3 million so far in support of these efforts. They are also establishing definitions for pediatric harm measures, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will consider adopting.
The OCHSPS National Children’s Network is being funded through the Partnership for Patients initiative, a public-private collaboration to improve the quality, safety and affordability of healthcare for all Americans, led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). OCHSPS is one of 26 Hospital Engagement Networks (HENs) funded under this initiative, and is the only effort in the nation that is focused on pediatric care and reducing Medicaid costs associated with care for children.
“It’s energizing and inspiring to be engaging leaders – ranging from fellow CEOs and individual members of boards of trustees to clinicians and quality experts – from across the country to launch an effort that has the potential to save thousands of lives and millions of dollars,” said Michael Fisher, president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and chair of OCHSPS, in a written statement. “The fact that the children’s hospitals in Ohio are the leaders of this effort is testament to the collaborative nature of our hospitals and the proven track record of success we have worked hard to create in our state.”
Hospitals participating in the OCHSPS National Children’s Network will be working together to achieve specific goals by Dec. 31, 2013, including reducing serious harm in participating institutions by 40 percent; reducing readmissions by 20 percent; and reducing serious safety events by 25 percent.
To achieve the network’s goals, participating hospitals will be learning from high reliability industries - such as nuclear power and aviation – that achieve high levels of safety in the face of considerable hazards and operational complexity. In addition, participants will focus on transparent sharing of data; development and use of standardized pediatric measures and process bundles; and the use of common tools and techniques to address organizational culture.
Follow HFN Associate Editor Kelsey Brimmer on Twitter @kbrimmerhfn.